A Side of Business Cards...

Your favourite barber - reliable, comfortable, and importantly, knows your backstory. That means you can skip the dull trudge of introductory chit chat.

My favourite barber retired recently, so I took the dreaded journey to finding my next home for hair. Though I don’t consider the quality of a haircut a life or death scenario, I still care about professionalism and not looking like the outcome of a $2 hair slashing.

So I did the Google - ‘barbershop near me’.

What’ll it be bro?

Sitting in a new chair. Lifted and wrapped. Cutting commences and chat ensues.

“What you do for a living bro?”

“Marketing.” I feel bad saying that. It’s so broad and vague you might as well be saying you’re in business.

“Bro, what marketing advice can you give for a new barber shop bro?”

I take him through a variety of low-cost options. I approach small businesses through the lens of, ‘If I started the business today with no money to advertise, what would I do?’

Social media, Google review solicitation, appointment setting, local mailbox walk, ultra-basic website; these things can be done on a shoestring budget and can have a big impact if done well.

“But bro, I don’t really get those things, so I worked with some local agency. I spent over $8,000 in four months on Facebook alone and I don’t know if I got one lead bro!”

I didn’t even try to hide my astonishment. That’s a crazy amount of money for a small business! Anyone reading this shouldn’t consider this response hyperbole. It’s easy to blow big money in advertising with little to no return. Particularly if a masquerading professional promises you results from it.

When we were done, I gave him a list of things he can do to maximize his marketing, but my mind wandered to this agency. They sold this poor guy on some crazy plan, and without knowing the story of who or what they said, I understood. 

Would you like fries with that?

As someone once in marketing agency sales, what I had to overcome was not the hesitancy to invest in marketing, but the hesitancy to trust agencies. Everyone had a bad experience being sold something they didn’t fully understand and it failed. Agencies had a reputation as sharks, praying on the misinformed and traffic-desperate small businesses.

There’s a natural tendency in sales to sell as much as you can, even if it’s not what the customer is buying. I don’t shy away from expressing my love of sales, but it’s got a bad name for a reason. Most people can think of one story they can share about a bad sales journey, and it doesn’t have to be a cliche as used cars. 

For me, it was business cards. Business cards were our, ‘would you like fries with that?’ New logo? For sure you need new cards! New website? Gotta get new cards with the address on it! We reached a point where our design team couldn’t stand to look at a new box of business cards.

I love marketing and I love sales. My hope in talking through my experience is that businesses are cautious and invested in their marketing strategy, and I hope agencies are thoughtful and meaningful in their recommendations.

Marketing is sales, and it’s susceptible to the same stigmas.